Can Big Suitors Untangle
Beiersdorf's Ownership?

Germany's Beiersdorf AG makes Nivea, one of the world's best-selling skin-care brands. But its appeal to suitors such as Procter & Gamble Co. and L'Oreal SA could prove to be only skin-deep.

The consumer-product concerns would love to own Beiersdorf, but the company's tangled, typically German ownership structure complicates a takeover. Both have held talks about the business with Allianz AG, which owns 43.6% of Beiersdorf and has offered to sell its stake for more than &euro;5 billion ($4.9 billion). But the problem...